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by Al Kellie
The following message has been excerpted and updated from
SCD's FY2000 Annual Scientific Report.
I am pleased to highlight some of SCD's
many activities during FY2000. It has been a challenging and productive time for
SCD staff. We have:
- Overseen major machine upgrades, resulting in a 400% increase in available
compute cycles for our community
- Provided for new mass storage capabilities
- Enhanced our visualization resources
- Subcontracted with UCAR to provide for enterprise web services
- Provided easier access to and management of treasured research datasets
SCD has moved confidently out of the doldrums of the aborted NEC system acquisition
and become a vibrant, energetic provider of the services required by our constituents.
Our mission is to support large and small research investigators, no matter where
they are located, and to empower them with access to user-centered computing facilities.
Computer upgrades
A major milestone in FY2000 was to upgrade
the computing capabilities of the IBM RS/6000 SP supercomputer (blackforest) to
a 151-node, 604-processor cluster running the AIX operating system. Blackforest
now provides 135 compute nodes that are equally divided between Community Computing
users and the Climate Simulation Lab. Upgrades were also applied to our test IBM
SP system (babyblue) and to our Compaq ES40 evaluation system (prospect). This,
in conjunction with our other production systems (four SGI Origin 2000 and two
Cray J90se machines) has kept SCD on track to providing teraflop computing for
the atmospheric and related sciences.
More MSS silos
With increased computing capability
comes the need to manage an ever greater volume of data. During FY00, we sought
and acquired three additional StorageTek automated tape cartridge systems for
our world-class Mass Storage System (MSS), bringing our total number of automated
tape handlers to five. The MSS now contains over 300 terabytes (TB) of research
data, and the additional tape handlers will allow us to continue providing outstanding
data storage and delivery services for the foreseeable future.
New data access and visualization services
Recognizing that data are the currency
of scientific research, SCD expanded its data analysis capabilities with a new
machine (dataproc) dedicated to such work for our scientific researchers. Moreover,
the Data Support Section within SCD has worked hard to make more of its research
data archive (including major sets of corrected data) available to researchers
around the world. We have also teamed with UCAR's Unidata program to provide a
dedicated machine for use in distributing regional weather data to university
researchers around the country.
In another data-driven area, SCD has taken steps to create a leading-edge
scientific visualization facility to serve researchers who need the finest data
analysis and presentation capabilities. SCD's strong reputation in this developing
technology has been nationally recognized. We intend to invest significantly in
the visualization facility, which will be used for a variety of purposes, including
real-time model analysis and visualization, collaboratory research, and access
to the evolving NSF GRID. Construction began in November 2000.
A new RFP
Last April, members of the division
began the complex and important task of preparing a Request for Proposal (RFP)
for the next generation of computing hardware to be acquired for NCAR. In preparing
this RFP, the needs of NCAR scientists and SCD technical personnel were merged
to create a unique document to drive this important acquisition.
Of particular note was the need to create an entirely new suite of computing
system performance benchmarks, using various production codes (MM5, WRF, PCM,
CCM, etc.) as a metric for determining what type of system (or systems) should
be offered for NCAR's consideration. The RFP was released in draft form to all
interested vendors in late August 2000; the final version was released in late
October. Responses are due back at NCAR on 9 January 2001
Greater challenges ahead
The staff and management of SCD look
forward to even greater challenges and exciting opportunities in the coming months.
As always, in all that we do, we seek to provide the finest in computing resources,
teamed with a dedicated and talented staff to help advance our understanding of
the Earth's complex climate system. |
